Glycoproteins are key components in many different functions within the human and animal body. It is often desirable to analyse the structure and sequence of glycoproteins and glycopeptides, in order to get information about health problems including breast cancer in Humans.
The analysis of glycoproteins and glycopeptides can be difficult ordinarily by mass spectrometry. In order to get significant information about any particular glycoprotein or glycopeptide sequence, data based upon the fragmentation of the analyte is required. One method of getting fragmentation data is typically Collision Induced Dissociation (CID), However, CID merely tends to result in the removal of the Glycan related group, which does not provide as much useful data for the sequencing of the Glycoprotein. An alternative method of fragmentation is Electron Transfer Dissociation. (ETD). However, ETD, does not provide much efficient fragmentation under normal conditions, which may also prevent sequencing the glycoprotein.
There is therefore a need for an improved method of analyzing glycoproteins and glycopeptides by Mass spectrometry where more fragments are produced, which allows the generation of data which provides greater sequence detail from which more structural information relating to the glycoprotein or glycopeptides can be deduced.